Making specialty coffee starts with a particular mindset, but ultimately it is a craft. There are particular things one needs to do. Jhonny Vidurrizaga does them all.
He is also one of our farmers pioneering the Connect.Coffee platform. Join Jhonny and sign up here today!
The CCS sourcing team is just back from Ethiopia with some samples of the most recent harvest. This is a rare chance to cup early in the selection process and book some amazing lots. Email Nico to reserve your place.
Partly in celebration of our new partnership with Fairfield Trading and mostly in celebration of the fantastic work of the ambitious and skilled coffee producers in the Acevedo microregion of Huila, Colombia, we're excited and proud to announce the Acevedo Cup competition!
A regional coffee quality competition. The Fairfield team has put out a call to Acevedo coffee farmers for submissions of their best coffees. They will spend the next weeks busily collecting, organizing and cupping/screening samples in preparation for the main event: a ranking of the top-20 coffees that we are now inviting you to take part in.
Participation is open to CCS clients and will be determined on a first-come-first served basis. We will take the first six roasters who confirm their attendance.
You will get yourselves to Bogota and we'll take things from there.
When: 16-21 December 2016
You'll arrive in Bogotá no later than the 15th of December and we'll all depart for Pitalito on the 16th of December.
The program in brief:
17 & 18 December: Preliminary Rounds 1 & 2
19 December: Top 20 cupping & ranking
20 December: Visits to top 3 farms and celebration party
21 December: Morning hike and travel back to Bogotá
Prufrock Coffee, London
London has become a second home for us at the Collaborative - especially at Prufrock Coffee, which has now welcomed and helped us co-host several cuppings since the very beginning. We have cupped some fantastic coffees and met some great coffee people within these walls, and now we are heading back to our London home again next week.
This time around, however, we have another venue and event to talk about: an exclusive cupping of coffees from Hacienda La Esmeralda at The Association. We have developed a great relationship over the years with the Peterson family, owners of Hacienda La Esmeralda. Throughout the history of Panama's Best of Panama competition, the Petersons and their geisha coffees have performed very well - winning or placing close to the top, many times. The quality and unique flavour characteristics have become so well regarded, that the family decided to hold their own auction, where lots are separated amongst their farms based on geographic areas and microclimates, and picking dates. These auction coffees comprise the Hacienda La Esmeralda Special lots.
Since 2006, we have been buying coffees from the Petersons and will offer their Esmeralda Boquete geisha blend this year, as we did last year. In addition to the Boquete Blend, we are excited to announce that we will be cupping this year's auction lots at The Association next week. This is an opportunity to be amongst the first to taste these amazing coffees, as well as provide interested roasters the opportunity to organize a buying group during the auction, which takes place on May 21st.
Where: The Association, 12 Creechurch Lane When: April 23, 4:30-6pm RSVP: Please confirm your attendance here
The next day, as part of UK Coffee Week, Prufrock is co-hosting a cupping where you will again have the opportunity to taste Esmeralda's auction lots. In addition, cuppers will taste fresh crop Guatemala and Honduran coffees from our friends at Bella Vista in Antigua and San Vincente in Santa Barbara. This is your chance to decide which lots are coming to Europe and into your roasteries before they are shipped! Also in the mix are soon-to-arrive Kenya coffees and again, you will have the opportunity to reserve the names you want offered in your menus.
See you there!
Move over vin et fromage - le cafe: c´est arrivé! That´s right light-roast lovers: no more the robusta filled double espresso, non! Never again the frothed-to-butter café au lait, sacré bleu! Because for two days only the culinary capital of the world will be transformed into coffee´s The Place To Be. O la la!
Over the 26-27 of October, we will be holding a two-day coffee extravaganza in the world´s most romantic city. Come, stuff yourself silly with crumbling patissiere whilst cupping some of the most delightful coffees your bouche will ever be amused by.
Cupping spoons and notepads at the ready! The programme will focus on the following areas:
1. Sourced by The Collaborative; roasted by You A unique opportunity to cup, compare and contrast coffees sourced by the Collaborative and roasted by individual specialty roasters across Europe.
2. Presenting: BRAZIL The Collaborative will be accompanied by Cup-of-Excellence-history-making producers. Together we will showcase the newest, freshest and boldest coffees available to Collaborative customers from the regions of Carmo de Minas and Piatá.
3. The Enlightenment Series: Processing! Varietals! We have invited leaders in their fields to come and talk to us about their research on the effects of different processing methods on the quality of coffee and cup profile, and the advantages and disadvantages of pioneering varietals. This is the cutting edge of agronomy and coffee production and an exclusive opportunity: don´t miss it!
Plus plenty of time for getting to know fellow specialty roasters from across the continent, award-winning producers and researchers from Latin America and of course The City of Lights in all its autumnal glory.
So: dust off your can-can shoes, practise your verb conjugations and loosen your belt a notch or two: nous allons à Paris!
Places are limited so get in there quick! info@collaborativecoffeesource.com
